1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a door reinforcement apparatus for mounting on structural surfaces adjacent to the interior side of various types of inward or upward opening doors, combining ease of use and installation and simplicity of design with added security and strength to the door where installed. The present invention is particularly useful for reinforcing wide doors such as garage doors, but its simplicity of design allows for use in reinforcement of most types of doors, an attribute not possessed by the prior art. It also addresses the need for reinforcement against inward forces such as those produced by windstorms as well as against intruders.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, due to several major hurricanes which ravaged the southeastern United States, there has been renewed attention given to improving structural strength of buildings to withstand the high wind forces. The building codes in several major metropolitan areas in this region of the United States have been revised to now require some type of reinforcement or protection of building walls and apertures against wind forces. Windows and glass doors need to be covered with panels or other protective coverings to resist breakage due to flying debris. The panels or protective coverings are generally designed to withstand inward forces through the type and thickness of materials used, the framing or tracks used in installation, and the use of strength-increasing corrugation.
In situations involving doors covering larger-dimension openings the need for reinforcement is not directed so much to preventing breakage due to flying debris. Instead, the need for reinforcement is directed towards preventing collapse of the door assembly because of its inability to withstand inward forces directed at the central areas of the wide-dimension door. In this regard, such doors are susceptible to various types of inward forces, including not only wind forces but also forces applied by intruders seeking entry into a building. This is because the doors themselves are usually made of materials strong enough to withstand impacts from flying debris, but are not made of sufficient thickness to resist inward forces because the resulting doors would be too heavy to handle and too expensive. Thus, reinforcement for these types of large-dimension openings is preferably in the nature of bracing to prevent inward or other flexing movement of the door rather than coverings or thicker materials for the doors.
One of the most common examples of a larger-dimension door which must be reinforced is the typical garage door, which consists of several horizontal panels hinged together and operates vertically using rollers which engage tracks aligned at each vertical side of the door. Such doors are usually made of aluminum, wood or even fiberglass materials which would likely be able to withstand impacts from flying debris in a windstorm provided that they can resist inward wind forces directed at their central portions. Without reinforcement, it has been found that when such doors are exposed to forces such as those produced by high velocity windstorms, the doors tend to buckle inward and can separate from their frames or tracks, thereby allowing such forces to enter the building and cause damage. Such unreinforced doors can also be breached by intruders applying force against such doors' central area, thereby loosening the door from its tracks enough to disengage its locking mechanisms. Other types of larger-dimension doors which are susceptible to inward buckling due to forces applied to their central areas include side opening doors used in warehouses and structures such as hangars, and side-by-side double entry doors used in residential and commercial buildings, which have a weak point typically consisting of a thin wood or metal molding secured at the edge of one of the doors adjacent to the edge of the other door, where the locks of one door engage the other door, and where adjustable and lower bolts are typically located, which bolts are inserted upwardly and downwardly into the door frame and the floor threshold, respectively. These double doors are vulnerable at this center vertical molding because inward forces can cause the comparatively thin and therefore weak molding to crack or split, resulting in the doors being breached.
Large-dimension door reinforcement assemblies should be as simple as possible to install, maintain and store, while also be as economical as possible so that they have more widespread usage, resulting in a greater number of reinforced doors and, in turn, reduce the chances of break-ins by intruders and, lower chances of door failures caused by windstorms which could cause collateral damage to other property by becoming projectiles in such storms.
Efforts to address reinforcement needs of large-dimension doors such as the typical garage door have resulted in various forms of reinforcement apparata, each of which has its benefits but which also suffer from several practical flaws. Garage doors are now usually required to be reinforced by installation of horizontal beams made of wood (typically 2".times.4" beams) or metal fastened to the horizontal door panels of such doors by means of "U" shaped brackets bolted to such door panels. Such beams are intended to stiffen the panels and prevent them from warping when forces are applied inwardly against the door. Unfortunately, such beams add considerable weight to the door, requiring adjustment of the door spring mechanism tension and straining the automatic garage door opener drive mechanism commonly used in connection with such doors, resulting in gradual wear and tear of such mechanism to the point where it may later break down. Furthermore, such beams, while providing some measure of added stiffness to the door, do not effectively secure the door so that it cannot be forced open by intruders or protect against the door itself from separating from its frame due to inward forces, because the horizontal beams do not fasten to the adjacent building structure at all.
Other attempts to address the need for reinforcement of doors against inward forces have also focused on application in situations involving inward forces caused by windstorms while ignoring the need for resistance against intruders, with advances directed to providing reinforcement which can be left mounted on the door. These devices typically can be left mounted on the door, thereby eliminating the need for repeated installation, but the initial installation is cumbersome, requiring considerable skill and tools, and may necessitate the removal or modification of existing above-described horizontal reinforcements. Furthermore, while these devices can be used whenever the door is closed, even when the property occupant is not present, these devices do not provide security against intruders because they disengage whenever the door is opened (whether opened under normal operation or by force). They do not lock in place, and as a result an intruder can force the door to its open position just as if the reinforcement was not present. Additionally, because they are left in place, they add weight to the door and are of necessity made of numerous moving parts, parts which will inevitably wear with time.
Attempts at addressing both the need to reinforce against inward forces caused by windstorms as well as forces caused by intruders are flawed in that they are composed of numerous parts and which can themselves cause damage to the door being reinforced when called upon to resist inward forces applied against the door. Furthermore, these devices employ reinforcing means which are also only applicable to garage doors and are only as effective as the strength of the garage door's materials and fasteners.
Examples of attempts to provide reinforcement against inward forces created by windstorms as well against intruders are U.S. Pat. No. 5,620,038 to DeCola et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,509 to Gaffney, et al. DeCola discloses a system for bracing garage doors against hurricane force winds which includes a plurality of vertical door stiffening column members which can be made of wood, and uses separate deflection brackets which must be custom-mounted to the door stiffening column members during installation, a process which requires time and skill. The deflection brackets are also adapted to engage the typical garage door panel hinges, which makes them useful only in applications involving garage doors which have such hinges, and not to other types of doors or doors having other types of hinges. The use of deflection brackets was in response to what was the perceived tendency of garage doors to "peel" outwardly from the opening after being loosened from their tracks due to inward forces. Because garage doors are installed so that their top and side exterior edges rest against the frame of the garage opening, thereby providing resistance on these edges against outward forces, this "peeling outward" occurs generally when either the building structure has been breached at some other point, resulting in outward forces being applied against the door or if the door loosens from its tracks due to application of inward forces, which leads to outward forces being applied as a result of the wind turbulence created in the garage. In such situations the deflection brackets will likely prove ineffective because they are only as strong as the sheet metal screws used to fasten the door hinges to the thin metal door panels.
More importantly, the deflection brackets themselves can actually cause considerable damage to the door being reinforced because they connect to the moving parts of the door (its hinges); when inward forces are applied and the deflection brackets are called upon to deflect such forces, they can result in damage or breakage of the hinge, and can even result in perforation of the door panel surface. Furthermore, the use of deflection brackets results in less reinforcing contact between the door and the stiffening member, necessitating the use of multiple vertical stiffening members.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,509 to Gaffney, et al. describes a kit for door reinforcement which is also limited in its application to garage doors through its use of one or more "finger-like" members insertable into the hinges of the door. These finger-like members are the points of contact between the door and the reinforcement device, and are intended to provide reinforcement against both inward and outward forces. Because the finger-like members are inserted into the hinges of the garage door, the reinforcement provided is only as strong as the hinge materials and fasteners. Furthermore, the finger-like portions, like the deflection brackets in DeCola, could result in distortion and damage to the hinges and possibly perforation of the door when forces, whether originating from windstorms or from an intruder prying upwardly, are applied. The use of finger-like members to provide reinforcement has the further drawback in that such members can be lost with time and are not likely to be easily replaced because of their specialized application. While they provide a connection between the door and the reinforcement apparatus, the finger-like members do not result in a tight fit between the reinforcement apparatus' surface, the door surface and the surrounding frame, and the door is therefore susceptible to vibration and movement which can ultimately result in a breach of the door.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved door reinforcement apparatus which provides effective reinforcement against inward forces such as those caused by windstorms as well as added security against intruders by preventing the door from being opened.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved door reinforcement apparatus which, because of its improved design, is easily and quickly installed and removed.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved door reinforcement apparatus which, because of its improved design, can provide long-lasting reinforcement more economically than currently available alternatives and will not damage or distort door components when called upon to resist forces.
Other objects, advantages and features of the present invention will become apparent when the following description is considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.